


Transience

by half_alive



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Break Up, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Flirting, Gen, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Moving On, Platonic Life Partners, Platonic Relationships, Platonic Romance, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:02:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23997205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/half_alive/pseuds/half_alive
Summary: Somehow, somewhere along the way, everyone is convinced Barry and Caitlin are dating. And Barry and Caitlin… don’t bother to correct them.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Caitlin Snow, Barry Allen/Leonard Snart, Unrequited Barry Allen/Iris West
Comments: 11
Kudos: 223





	Transience

Barry isn’t really sure how it started.

It seemed like it just happened, somewhere in between all of the fighting bad guys and fighting with each other. He didn’t think it was either of them that had started it, more like everyone had just agreed that it was true and they hadn’t had the chance to correct them.

Okay, so maybe they’d had the chance. Many chances, in fact. But it always seemed like more trouble than it was worth. It wasn’t doing any harm, was it?

All Barry knew was that at some point he and Caitlin became a thing. To everyone except him and Caitlin.

In retrospect, he could see why the team thought that. They’d always been close, always been each other’s shoulder to cry on when everything got to be too much, and they spent a lot of time together. Especially after Thawne, an experience the three of them — he, Caitlin, and Cisco — shared in a way that Iris and Joe didn’t. They’d all lost things, but it was the three of them who’d been betrayed, who’d put their trust in someone who turned out to be the worst kind of evil.

Caitlin also happened to be a good drinking buddy, especially since they’d managed to figure out how to get Barry drunk. She was fun, if not a little bit crazy, and they’d had many a karaoke night together. 

So, he and Caitlin were a thing. Without being a thing.

.

It isn’t a problem. Honestly, it’s kind of nice. To feel like he has a partner, for people to treat him like he does, to be a _we_. The fact that they aren’t really dating makes it even better. There aren’t any expectations. He doesn’t have to stress about being the perfect boyfriend, or about ruining their friendship, or about forgetting an important date, or about not having enough time to spend with her. 

It’s easy, perfect even, and maybe that’s why he leaves it for a while. A long while. Nearly a year, in fact, until it starts to come crashing down.

“Have you thought about moving in with Caitlin?” Joe suggests when he’s whining about the rent increase if he signs next year’s lease at his current apartment. “Would cut the costs in half.”

Barry tries to laugh it off, but Joe is giving him a look that says he isn’t going to drop it until Barry has seriously considered it. “Joe, come on,” he urges. “That’s way too much.”

“Barry,” Joe says in the same exact tone. “Come on. It’s been a year. You’re adults. Don’t tell me you’re still just ‘hanging out’. It’s time to get serious.”

“I am serious,” Barry insists, but it makes his stomach twist. It feels wrong to lie to Joe like this. This is one of the first real conversations they’ve had about it — it’s so much easier to brush it off when they’re both just talking around it, to keep up with the pretense when no one’s actually confronting him with it. “It’s just way too soon.”

Joe shakes his head like he’s disappointed, but he lets the subject drop. Instead, he grabs their empty beers off the coffee table and heads to the kitchen to grab them each another while Barry rubs his forehead on the couch. He tries to shake off the dirty feeling he gets from lying to Joe, but it clings to him nonetheless.

.

“Should we tell them we’re not actually dating?” Barry asks the next time they go out. He’s sitting across from her at one of the inconveniently small tables at the only karaoke bar in Central City, leaning both elbows on it as some poor soul mumbles _My Heart Will Go On_ into the microphone.

Caitlin hums thoughtfully, taking a sip of her drink. It’s the first of the night, so they’re both completely sober, pacing themselves so they don’t get trashed before ten. She looks stunning in a form-fitting but modest dress, her hair draped over her shoulders and her make-up just intense enough to fit the mood of the bar but not so intense that it doesn’t seem like Caitlin. “Do you want to?”

Barry shrugs. He’s been mulling it over for a while now, but he hasn’t come to a conclusion. He hates lying just as much as he likes being with Caitlin, platonically.

Really it’s just an excuse, pretending to be together. An excuse to avoid dating after Iris’s kind but soul-crushing rejection. An excuse to spend all his free time with someone he genuinely loves, though not romantically. An excuse for people to stop looking at him like a kicked puppy who’s going to be forever alone.

Sometimes, when things are bad and Caitlin’s there, he wishes he could look at her that way. He wishes he could really be with her. But that isn’t who he is, and it’s not who she is, either.

“I like this,” Caitlin says firmly, pulling him out of his thoughts. It’s a talent of hers to know when he’s spiralling and give him an anchor. “If you don’t want to tell them, I don’t either.”

Barry takes a sip of his drink. “Okay,” he says.

“Okay,” Caitlin affirms, and that’s that.

.

The next time Barry considers coming clean is at the latest Team Flash/Legends team up. Everything’s fine until it’s over, until the threat has been neutralized, world saved, and they’re all just hanging out and catching up.

Cisco is the one who ruins it when Sara asks what’s new with everyone. “Barry and Caitlin are dating!”

Collectively, the whole group turns to look at the two of them. They’re sitting beside each other in the lounge with a respectable two inches of space between them, though Barry’s arm is behind her on the headrest. He carefully slips it back to his side under the watchful eyes of literally everyone else in the room.

“Oh?” says Leonard Snart, because of course he’s here. He’s perched on his chair in a way that looks careless but also suggests a high level of thought into exactly where to place each arm and leg. Barry can’t read his whole expression, as always, but he can read the smugness that never seems to leave it. “Since when?”

“Since…” Barry starts, and then looks to Caitlin because actually he has no idea when everybody started reading so much into their relationship.

Caitlin is as decisive as ever in her response, so much so that even Barry almost believes her. “A year. Give or take.”

“ _Interesting_ ,” Snart drawls in such a way that Barry spends the rest of the night keeping an eye on him. It’s too genuine, like Snart is seeing right through them and finding it all amusing. Barry wouldn’t put it past him — he’s one of the most clever opponent’s he’s faced, and he’s come to realize that that calculating brain doesn’t just turn itself off when it comes to personal matters. Snart is meticulous and perceptive in everything he does, even when he’s meant to be blowing off steam with his friends.

Are they friends? Probably not. More like acquaintances who always carefully select the two furthest seats from each other.

He begins to rethink that a little when Snart approaches him in the kitchen later. He’s pouring himself another drink — orange juice without the champagne because it seemed like a waste to bother — when Snart creeps up behind him, coming to stand right beside him so there’s barely an inch of space between them.

“So,” Snart says, pretending like he’s picking through his drink options. “The doctor, huh?”

Barry gives him a sideways glance, then frowns down at his cup in confusion. He’s not sure what Snart’s playing at here, but they’ve come this far. He and Caitlin have both agreed that they like what they’re doing, and there’s no reason to stop now. So he clears his expression into a polite smile and says, “Yeah, Cait. She’s amazing.”

“Too bad,” Snart says, taking a drink.

Barry frowns at him. “Too… bad?”

“Too bad,” he repeats, then pours himself a glass of whiskey and leaves.

Barry stares after him, dumbfounded.

.

It all comes crashing down when Julian Albert enters the picture. Specifically, when he enters Cait’s picture. Barry wants to be upset, wants to keep hating him, but he can’t when Cait seems happy, fulfilled in a way she couldn’t be if they’d kept up the charade.

They don’t come clean. Instead, they fake an amicable break up that somehow still feels like a real break up. He comes away feeling like he’s lost something, like he’s more alone than he was before, even though Caitlin is still there just like she’s always been.

It’s the first time he really realizes how much he needed this whole fake relationship. How much of a void there was in him to fill, and how well Caitlin filled it. He loves her, he does. It’s not romantic, but it’s just as fierce, and some part of him had hoped that they could still be partners in spite of it. That he wouldn’t have to let go, to lose her just a little bit so she can give more of herself to Julian. 

He feels out of sorts. Iris and Cisco try to take him out to comfort him, to get him over the ‘break up’, and morbidly he thinks that at least he’s selling it well. Joe offers to have him stay at the house for a bit, until he feels more like himself, but Barry turns him down. Instead, he stays in his quiet apartment, the one that’s never quite felt like home, and wonders if the Caitlin thing was only perfect because he’s incapable of being in a real relationship. Maybe he’ll never have one.

After a respectable two weeks, Barry pulls himself together and gets over it. He loves Cait and he loves to see her happy, and he especially loves that she promised to still do karaoke night every week with him. Julian doesn’t seem thrilled, but he also seems to respect that she and Barry are still best friends despite their ‘relationship’.

Life goes on.

.

A few months after, he and Caitlin are sitting at one of those inconveniently small tables at the only karaoke bar in Central City. Some poor soul is mumbling some sappy love song into the microphone, and they’re on their second drinks of the night.

Caitlin taps her fingers against her glass, watching the girl on stage. “Do you miss it?” she asks without looking at him.

Barry considers it carefully. He stares down into the swirling amber liquid in his cup. “Sometimes.”

She reaches across the table to place her hand on top of his. He meets her eyes, that warm, kind look in her eyes that made him feel like he could trust her with all his secrets before they even knew each other. “I’ll always be here, Barry,” she tells him, an urgency to her tone like she needs him to believe her. He does. He knows that. “And maybe when you’re ready, you could try dating for real.”

“Yeah,” Barry says, shifting uncomfortably. “I just don’t know if I can. After Iris… What if I can’t feel that for someone else?”

“Barry,” she says gently, squeezing his hand. “I know you’ve always thought Iris was your one great love, but there is no _one_ , not for any of us. I loved Ronnie. He was my one great love, and then he was gone and I had to move on and realize that there’s no limit on how much love you have to give. You’ll feel what you did for Iris again, and I’m sure this time they’ll love you just as fiercely. You’re the best person I know.”

Barry swallows hard, fighting off the stinging in his eyes. He squeezes her hand back, smiling. “Thanks, Cait. I needed that.”

“Like I said, I’m always here.” She smiles back, then removes her hand. Taking a sip of her drink, her expression changes from comfort to slyness. “Maybe it’s time to play the field a little bit. You could start with Snart. He certainly seemed interested.”

“What?” Barry sputters, glad he hadn’t taken a drink. “I don’t—”

“Sure,” Caitlin agrees, shrugging, but her smug expression doesn’t change. “I’m just saying.”

Barry shakes his head, then laughs. Caitlin joins him. It feels right again. So right he almost forgets that he’d felt wrong before, that he’d taken the break up harder than he should’ve. He hasn’t really lost anything. He doesn’t think he ever could, not where Cait’s concerned.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This was written for Day 1 of Barry Allen Week, Fake Relationship. I've written a fake relationship fic before (the classic fake becomes real) so i wanted to try going in a different direction. I love the friendships on this show, especially the Barry, Caitlin, Cisco trio, and I'm a sucker for fulfilling, platonic relationships/life partners so it felt nice to be able to write that in some form. I wrote this all in one quick sitting to be able to post it today so it's not as good as it could be, but I think it turned out okay and it was weirdly fulfilling.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it <3 I love comments and kudos, and I also love talking to you guys on [Tumblr](https://frozenflash.tumblr.com). I take prompts/suggestions/requests over there too!


End file.
